The present invention relates generally to communications systems.
Callers to customer call centers are not always able to reach an appropriate agent, e.g., an appropriate expert or knowledge worker, to respond to their questions. By way of example, a caller may call a customer call center with a question regarding a particular area for which there is no appropriate expert on duty or effectively answering calls. Typically, if no appropriate expert is on duty, a customer call center system will find a set of appropriate experts who are online, e.g., logged into to the customer call center system or present within the customer call center system using an instant messaging application, and send the set of appropriate experts an “offer task” message. The “offer task” message generally informs the set of appropriate experts who are online that there is a customer call available for which the appropriate experts are particularly suitable for responding. When one of the appropriate experts accepts the offered task and, hence, agrees to respond to the customer call, the other appropriate experts are notified that the offered task has been accepted by another party.
In the event that there is no set of appropriate experts online when a customer call comes into a customer call center, the customer call center system generally either informs the customer to call back at another time, or routes the customer call to an agent who may not have the expertise sought by the customer. Such a solution may be undesirable, as there is no guarantee that the customer will have more success with finding an appropriate agent when he or she calls back, and an agent without the appropriate expertise may not be capable of providing the necessary assistance to the customer.
Often, a customer who calls a customer call center may require assistance from more than one agent. By way of example, a customer may require the services of a subject-matter expert and a foreign language translator. If only one agent whose expertise is needed by the customer is available to respond to a call placed by the customer who requires the services of two or more experts, an offer task message may be sent to a set of appropriate experts who are not currently available. However, when the offer task message is accepted, the first expert may not necessarily still be available. Hence, the customer may still be unable to receive satisfactory assistance.